Monthly Archives : May 2011

VIVE LE ROCK IS PROUD TO PRESENT RAMONES LEGEND-MARKY RAMONES BLITZKRIEG AT THE BIRMINGHAM 02 ACADEMY JUNE 25TH (INK CLUB NIGHT-WITH VIVE LE ROCK DJS) AND LONDON 02 ACADEMY JUNE 26TH. FEATURING FORMER MISFITS VOCALIST MICHAEL GRAVES ON VOCALS-MARKY PROMISES ALL THE RAMONES HITS PLUS NEW SONGS LIKE-‘WHEN WE WERE ANGELS’ FEATURED ON ISSUE ONES VIVE LE ROCK COVER CD.

THE MAN IS A COOL GUY AND HAS A GREAT BAND. SEE YOU THERE!! BELOW IS A QUICK LOOK AT MARKYS LONG CAREER….

Marky began his career playing drums in 1971 for hard rock outfit Dust. Marky recorded two albums with the band, before getting into the NYC punk scene. In late 1972, following the death of New York Dolls original drummer Billy Murcia, Marky auditioned as a replacement and was the only seriously considered alternative to the eventual chosen candidate, Jerry Nolan. In the mid-70s he played with Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys. Wayne County would go on to become rock’s first transsexual singer. In the late 1970s, he joined Richard Hell & The Voidoids. He played on the Voidoid’s first album, Blank Generation.

When Tommy Ramone quit the Ramones in 1978, Marc Bell was asked to be Tommy’s replacement, and was renamed Marky Ramone.

Marky was with the Ramones for the next five years. He was asked to leave the band in 1983 to conquer his periodic drinking. He returned in 1987 and played with the band up until their retirement in 1996.

In 1993, Marky appeared with the Ramones in the episode "Rosebud" of The Simpsons.

In 1996, Marky joined Dee Dee Ramone and his wife Barbara Zampini, to play with The Ramainz, performing Ramones songs for fun.

In 2000, Marky joined Joey Ramone, lead vocalist of the Ramones, to record Joey’s only solo album, entitled Don’t Worry About Me.

In October 2001, Marky appeared on MTV accepting a lifetime achievement award presented by Bono of U2 to the Ramones. Marky Ramone’s hand prints are on the Hollywood Rock Walk. In March 2002, Marky was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, at New York’s Waldorf Astoria as a member of the Ramones.

He recorded some albums with his solo bands Marky Ramone & the Intruders and Marky Ramone & the Speedkings, as well as many 7" releases. Marky Ramone & the Speedkings toured the world from 2002 to 2003.

In September 2004, Marky served as Executive Producer and released a Ramones DVD entitled Ramones: Raw on Image Entertainment, which featured footage of the band while on tour all over the world along with other various rare, vintage footage. Much of the candid footage is courtesy of Marky Ramone’s personal video library. The DVD was finished just in time to include commentary from Johnny Ramone, who died from prostate cancer on September 15, 2004. The commentary also includes Marky Ramone. Ramones: Raw is the only certified Gold selling Ramones DVD and one of only two US gold selling releases in the Ramones entire catalog. The other being the greatest hits double LP Ramonesmania released in 1988. Ramones: Raw is also the highest charting release in the Ramones history.

In January 2005, Marky went to tour with Russian band Tarakany!. The tour was called Ramones Night Tour 2005: Marky Ramone & Tarakany!.

Marky signed on for another year as the D.J. on his own show the Punk Rock Blitzkrieg.

On SiriusX.M. On April 22, 2008, Marky Ramone appeared on a new CD in Canada playing drums with the Canadian punk band called Teenage Head. The CD is called Teenage Head with Marky Ramone and it was released in the USA on June 10, 2008. It was recorded in 2003 on two separate visits by Marky to Canada.

Marky has a DVD coming out next year called The Job That Ate My Brain – the Marky Ramone Story.

He teamed up with Tommy Hilfiger’s, Hilfger Denim, in 2009 to launch his own clothing line consisting of leather jackets, jeans and t-shirts. He also has his own line of pasta sauce, "Marky Ramone’s Brooklyn’s Own Pasta Sauce."

Marky continues to carry the torch for the Ramones as he tours the world with his band Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, which plays a 32-song set of the Ramones with former Misfits frontman and lead singer Michale Graves. Marky Ramone will perform a set of Ramones songs with New Found Glory at 2011’s The Bamboozle Festival.

On December 6, 2010, Marky joined Anthony Bourdain on the "No Reservations Holiday Special." The two gather around a table at Lola in Cleveland, OH and discuss what they want from Santa Claus ("to take the Millennium Falcon for a spin!").

Marky also won the lifetime achievement award from the Grammy’s for 2011.

With punk legend Poly Styrene having tragically passed away recently, Vive Le Rock takes a look back at a classic VLR interview with the former X-Ray Spex frontwoman. Pick up the new issue of Vive Le Rock for more on her incredible life and career. RIP Poly Styrene.

Art-I-Ficial intelligence: a word with Poly Styrene

A truly original voice in UK punk, X-Ray Spex vocalist Poly Styrene (née Mari Elliott) remains a model of do-it-yourself individuality. Against the stark 1977 backdrop of black leather and dole queue psychosis, the ‘Spex were a vivid burst of colour, a riot of sax-led punk rock fronted by this charismatic south Londoner, clad in bizarre mix-and-match pop art clobber and belting out her funny, often satirical lyrics. X-Ray Spex’ initial run was brief; after five singles and one album, 1978’s Germ Free Adolescents, the band folded. While Poly’s relationship with the music business has been on-off since, September 2008 saw a reconstituted Spex take the stage at Camden’s Roundhouse, a momentous event documented for posterity on a joint CD and DVD ‘Live At The Roundhouse London 2008’ (Year Zero). VLP hooked up with Poly for a few words on Spex matters past and present… What do you think made the time right to get X-Ray Spex back together in 2008?

Well it was the 30th anniversary of Germ Free Adolescents. So that was really why, ‘cause it came out in ‘78 I think. It was just something I felt like trying. It was myself and Paul Dean who are the original members and then we got some of our friends. Sid Truelove played drums, who plays in Rubella Ballet. Flash on saxophone who has played with the Slits, Essential Logic and Rip Rig and Panic. And Saxby, we call him Great Saxby just for a joke, who played in Arnold before. Rubella Ballet I seem to recall shared a bit of the Spex aesthetic, they were quite colorful…

Yeah, they were sort of X-Ray Spex day-glo fans, but they’re old friends of mine, I’ve known them for years now!

The Spex sound is slightly harder to pin down than some other punk groups, what had your teenage musical diet been?

Everything, from Marc Bolan to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, that’s what I grew up with and I suppose what everybody else heard on the radio. And obviously Motown as well. Yeah, a mixture, that’s originally what I listened to. Even things like Tubular Bells! It hasn’t really influenced X Ray Spex particularly, but I suppose female icons would have been people like Janis Joplin, maybe Grace Slick, but I also really love people like Aretha and Diana Ross as well. I just like music, I’m not into tribaling into particular genre of music that goes with a particular sort of group of people, I just like music, even some classical.

There’s this great story that you and your friends gatecrashed Queen’s rehearsals in Kensington?

We wasn’t really gategrashing, it’s just that Brian May was my schoolteacher, my maths teacher. And we just happened to be in Biba’s, he used to rehearse in the top, in the roof gardens. And our teacher used to come out and see us there because we’d skipped games or something, he’d say ‘Girls, what are you doing here???’ He was still on duty! I did run into him years later outside the Krishna temple, and I sort of bumped into him, he was there parked with his son, he asked me ‘Are you married?’, ‘cause I used to ask him that in school. ‘Sir, are you married? Sir, if you’re married, why doesn’t your wife iron your shirts?’ I used to have a little thing going with him about that, in class, it was just a joke. You know, I was a bit naughty. I was in a special maths group, underachievers, I wasn’t good at maths, he was one of the supply teachers, ‘specially for us difficult ones. He was a student teacher, we knew there was a difference, he used to come in with long hair and holes in his shoes, and we used to tease him a bit. He was very good actually, very good teacher, he used to say ‘Do you want to learn maths or not??’

Before you even got X-Ray Spex together, you’d made a solo single?

I did, I did this sort of reggae thing with GT Moore and the Reggae Guitars, it was just this jokey thing really, I wasn’t expecting much to come of it. I was singing it to my manager for a joke and he arranged to record it, he obviously thought it had some potential, but I didn’t really, it was something that happened, and next thing I knew it was on a label and out! I used to write lots of songs and demo them, and that one was released, my other demoes didn’t get released. It was just experimental songwriting really.

Shortly after that you had your Sex Pistols moment in Hastings…

Yeah, well it wasn’t just the Sex Pistols, I did see the Pistols on Hastings Pier when I was 18, but they weren’t like the ‘Sex Pistols’, they didn’t have that album that everyone knows them for, they were doing quite a few covers. It was very early, they weren’t famous or anything, there was only about 3 people, perhaps 4 or 5 girls, language students, from Scandinavia that were in the audience. But it struck me, they didn’t have a big following, they didn’t have a record company behind them, they weren’t famous, but they were about my age group and it just made me think if these people – I didn’t know they’d go on to become really famous – if these people can just do their own thing, even if they’re doing covers, I could have a band as well. Before that I’d only seen big bands – Led Zeppelin, the Who, Frank Zappa, I hadn’t seen anybody… they looked a bit different as well, they had a different image. They had shorter hair! Shorter hair and straight leg trousers, I remember that much. I remember thinking this is a departure from the long hair, sort of aristo-rock style flamboyant thing. It wasn’t the music or that they had Anarchy In The UK or God Save The Queen, they didn’t have those songs. In fact I think they were even doing some cover versions of the Stones as far as I can remember. It was very early days for them. But because it was new and there wasn’t many people there, it made me think, well they’re still out there doing it, they’re young and they’re doing it, I could do that as well rather than making demos for record companies. I could do a live thing.

How did you go about finding like-minded people for the band?

I put an advert in NME and Melody Maker with my manager for ‘Young punks who want to stick it together’ and lots of people came for that, believe it or not. Even though it was very early days and punk wasn’t really a big thing.

Did you have saxophone in mind when you started out?

No, I didn’t, I was just, when Lora (Logic, sax) came along I just thought ‘This is great’!

She must have been very young then…

About sixteen. She was still in school. We didn’t do that many dates, mainly at the Roxy and I think we did a few at the Man In The Moon with Lora. And then she went back to school… it was that and I think she wanted to do her own thing, Essential Logic. Because I was the main songwriter in X-Ray Spex, and she wanted to write songs and sing. I mean even now, recently, I’ve seen Lora and she said she’s not playing saxophone any more because it’s too heavy around her neck. And if she does do anything again she’s going to be doing Essential Logic with singing. She always really wanted to be a songwriter and it wasn’t very punky exactly what she was writing. So she might bring a song to X-Ray Spex rehearsal, she brought one called Petrol Pump Blues and I thought, this isn’t really what we’re doing. So I think she got a bit frustrated as well like that.

Didn’t she do a guest spot on a Stranglers album, Black And White?

She did, yeah… she did play on Conscious Consumer as well… Oh yeah, there’s the nineties X-Ray Spex album too…

There was, she played on that, but I don’t know, it all went a bit skew-whiff around that time. I got knocked over by a fire engine and then they tried to reform X-Ray Spex, with a girl called Poly Filla! It didn’t really work out, so it all got left for a long time. And then I met a promoter at a Goldblade gig and he wanted to put on an X-Ray Spex show, and I thought, I’ll try it. So I did it and it was really a one-off, I wasn’t really planning to do a lot. I thought I’d do it and just see what the reception’s like! It was actually quite good! So you enjoyed doing the show?

I found it very stressful, but it was a great turnout of people and a really great audience. I was a bit surprised because there were all these young girls that turned up that knew all the songs that were singing along. But before that I did the Love Music Hate Racism in spring in Victoria Park last year, that was about 70,000 people, I did Oh Bondage Up Yours there with Drew McConnell from Babyshambles, and Flash who plays with X Ray Spex and everybody, all these people knew the song, I was really surprised then, I thought oh everyone’ll know who Babyshambles is, they won’t know my song, I felt really nervous about going on, but to my surprise there were all these kids in the front singing Oh Bondage Up Yours! So if you haven’t done it for a long time you don’t know, you kind of get a surprise, ‘cause I haven’t been very public or very active, that all these people know all my songs. On top of that at the Roundhouse the girls even knew the songs from Conscious Consumer that I sang, so it must’ve been just going out there and records just have a momentum of their own.

There’s a sort of duel nature to X-Ray Spex songs, on one hand they’re very poppy and fun, but there’s this dark underside, like the character in Identity self-harming…

Yeah, well unfortunately I was around, I was young and impressionable at the time, and I witnessed things like that while I was at the Roxy, it was Tracey I think that used to work in Seditionaries, she was in the ladies’ at the Roxy and I saw that and just wrote about it. I didn’t think, oh this it too dark, I just literally wrote about what I was seeing that year really, and that’s how that one came about. So I know there is a dark element to it, and I feel a bit weird, when I had to revisit it, to do the show last year, listening to it all again, I did actually change some of the words, not on Identity, because I’ve seen that in hospitals, lots of young girls doing that, it’s not very nice, but you see these young girls, you see the razor marks up their arms. I don’t like to promote things like that particularly, but that one came out like that because I’d seen that and wrote about it. But on I Live Off You, I changed the words where it says ‘The pimp beats the whore, she just screams out for more and more’, I changed it, ‘She just screams out no more no more’. So I tried to change them a bit because I just thought God, these are a bit dark!

There’s also that line in Plastic Bag, ‘I dreamed that I was Hitler’!

Yeah, but that was just a silly one, anybody can have a silly dream! I left that one in, it was just meant to be dreaming you’re a bit of a power maniac, a megalomaniac, and Hitler sums that feeling up, of megalomania, But obviously in a very negative way. But I’m obviously not anti semitic anything, otherwise I wouldn’t have done the Anti Nazi League Rally.

Yeah, ‘cause at that time the far right was more high-profile than it ever was in this country, you had this backdrop of the National Front at their height…

Well the BNP’s becoming quite big where I am at the moment (south coast). My mother lives here as well, in a sort of retired block, and I know one of her friends is going to vote BNP, said he’s always voted Labour, but now he’s voting BNP and he goes, ‘It’s alright the ones that were born here, they’re ok! It’s the new ones from Iraq and Afghanistan’. They’re all on their high horse about this because there’s a few Iraqis here, but the way I look at it, if we weren’t there having a war, they wouldn’t be here. I couldn’t vote BNP, and I don’t believe it is ‘alright if they were born here’, I believe they want everybody to go back, even mixed race people. They wonder which half they want to send back!

Another troubling part of the backdrop in punk days seemed to be this flirtation with negativity within the movement, as with Sid Vicious…

Yeah, well that mainly came over from America, when like the New York Dolls and those bands… Johnny Thunders, I think that was the influence, that was the heroin that came in with the American bands, so Sid got involved with Nancy, and she was a dealer I think. So I think that and being young and impressionable, but also I believe his mother was an addict. So poor kid didn’t really stand much of a chance… So what was your relationship like with the US punks, ‘cause you namecheck Richard Hell in a song…

Oh yeah, I just liked the name, I just thought it was funny, but I did meet him in America, you know, I thought they were all nice, they were nice to me… but I wasn’t really on that whole heroin vibe, that was more Chrissie and Debbie, more caught up in that, but they all detoxed, all clean now… I think Tessa got a bit involved with heroin, but she’s cleaned up through Tai Chi. A lot of people got through it if they didn’t die, Sid was one of the unfortunate ones. But luckily I never got into it. I saw very early on when I was a young teenager, I had a boyfriend, he was sixteen, that died of heroin, I don’t even think he knew what he was doing. I witnessed that at a very young age so I was very careful about drugs during X Ray Spex. I don’t think drugs are glamorous. Not really. I think there was a flirtation with it, just like with cocaine it’s sort of a rich person’s drug and therefore it’s ‘glamorous’, and heroin had a glamorous thing to it in the punk days, from America, because those bands were quite glamorous, but when you think about it, I just think it victimizes people, it makes artists made more vulnerable to be able to be worked without proper payment, just for their drugs. When you hear about it in modeling, it all goes hand in hand with a negative outcome I think.

So you managed to sidestep that with Spex…

Oh yeah, we were pretty clean, I think our boys might have drunk a little bit but that’s about it really.

To what extent were X-Ray Spex lambasting arficiality, were you to some extent celebrating it?

I know people always say I was always really anti-it, but I don’t think I was, I was just sort of writing about it because it was around. I did think it was a bit tacky… but it wasn’t that I’m totally anti-capitalist, I’m not a capitalist really but I’m not against everything material that makes money, because that’s the nature of the world, the way it goes around unfortunately, that’s the way it’s been set up. So really I was more just painting a picture with the words about it. You know when I say in Art-I-Ficial ‘When I put on my makeup, the pretty little mask not me, that’s the way a girl should be in a consumer society’. Well that is just the way it is, it’s just stating a fact. It’s not really saying it’s bad, I’m not saying isn’t that terrible. That’s the way I saw it, I saw that we live in a consumer society and… I don’t know, it all rhymed!

That reminds me of a quote of Strummer’s, that 100 years of political thinkers hadn’t come up with the answers so how four guys from London with guitars could…

Ha ha! Well I mean, I think it’s bad, I don’t believe in the trickle down effect and the whole laissez-faire every man for himself. I don’t really believe in that, but I do believe in socialism really, social democracy. But at the same time I’m not like, you mustn’t buy a lipstick. I am careful, I don’t buy meat, because I think that’s really cruel and unnecessary and I’ve survived without that, so I’m vegetarian in that way, but I wouldn’t say I was an anarchist. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I believe in ‘Anarchy’. I’m not really talking about people that are politically anarchists, I’m talking about social mayhem where everything’s anarchic!

The album’s title track is a curious song, this very hypnotic, almost psychedelic-sounding guitar figure…

Well I was just very influenced by reggae at the time and I wanted that reverby dubby thing happening. We had a pedal and I said to Jak (Airport, original Spex guitarist), you know, put the reverb on it and slow it down so we get delayed echo on the guitar and we get that kind of hypnotic sound. I know it’s not obviously reggae but that was just our attempt at doing something that had a reggae influence I’d supposed it to be influenced by psychedelia rather than reggae!

I suppose it does come across a bit like that, in our naivity we thought we were doing modern reggae… not really modern reggae, but you know what I mean, we were only young and we were just experimenting with that delayed reverb thing… it’s slow, it was easy to dance to, in those days when you were into reggae you did skanking, that slow dancing, and I could do that to that, so that was one of the reasons I liked that track.

By 1978 you’d come from small clubs to the Hammersmith Palais, and getting the cover of Smash Hits – were you comfortable with stardom?

Not really, I remember seeing Smash Hits and complaining to my manager, he said he thought that’ I’d have liked it and I said ‘Noooo, it’s not cool anymore, it’s not underground! It’s gone pop! Totally!’ but in hindsight it wasn’t a bad thing it was popular, that was good really, but at the time I was a bit sort of ‘that’s not cool and punk, being on the cover of Smash Hits!’ I didn’t really read it I just remember seeing it in the newsagents and going ‘that’s not what I wanted!’ And there was an Arena documentary about you around that time?

Yeah, there was, I’ve seen that, my daughter saw it the other day, ‘cause she’s writing an X-Ray Spex musical, or she’s trying to do a rock opera! So she looked at the documentary and she thought it was good, but when I saw it I thought I was quite depressed…

Do you remember being depressed at that point?

Yeah, I probably was, I did later get diagnosed with bipolar, so I was probably on a low phase rather than a manic high phase!

At that time that would have been a bit of an inexact science, people didn’t really understand much about the illness…

Yeah, I was totally misdiagnosed in the beginning with schizophrenia, because I said I saw that UFO…if you hallucinate or hear voices, they diagnose you as having schizophrenia. I remember being given huge amounts of Largactil That’s heavy, isn’t it, like prison medication?

Yeah, it’s like a cosh… a chemical cosh, and I was on that during the Arena documentary, so I think that’s why I was a bit, you know… What’s on the market now is presumably far gentler on the system?

Yeah, I do have to take medicine, but it’s not like that now… it took a long time for them to get there! I have to watch what I do, that’s one of the reasons I can’t do too much live work because it’s very charged, and that can create a manic attack, so I have to be careful what I do… I’m better off when I do more chilled out music, when I can, I was doing a dub track yesterday, with Sid actually, I was just messing around doing a dub track. I did a dub track in 2007 against the Iraq war called ’Code Pink’, it’s a woman’s group in America that are anti-war, it’s just a dub track about the war, anti-war, not really horrible, but just talking about weapons of mass destruction, it says, ‘Do you get what we’re talking about guv? How many trustafarians do you know with shares in weapons of mass destruction ?’ it’s quite a funny one, it’s a little bit cheeky. We did send it to Downing Street, I didn’t but my engineer did, I thought thanks a lot, you’ve got me blacklisted now! It’s not a Spex one, I was going to put it out on the DVD but Shirin at Future Noise music who’s putting out the live album and DVD she said make a solo album like it, so that’s what I was doing yesterday. I’m okay with the recording but the live stuff can be a bit…

High pressure?

Yeah, a bit, yeah.

So the band folded in 1979, do you remember how it ended?

I think there was a lot of pressure building up to it. There was the whole thing about the Pistols splitting up, because I think that’s when John was in PIL wasn’t it… but there was also the hatred in the press, about the ‘venom of the youth of today’ and a lot of people began to feel singled out for being a punk… I personally felt that and I don’t know whether that’s why a lot of bands split up… but also it was just like, it was a grass roots movement that came about organically and all of a sudden turned into this big, possibly a money spinner, but also a lot of worry, older people worried about the new generation of people ruining society, what was happening to the youth of today. So there was like a stigma attached to punk rock as well as a commerciality that was crossing over and I know that people were quite frightened of it. I know my manager, his father was the royal sculptor, his studio was at St James’ Palace. And they said that they were worried about the Sex Pistols, Anarchy In the UK and God Save The Queen. They were quietly worried and there was this feeling you’d been doing something that was anti-establishment and wrong, and you’d get into trouble for it… So people had been demonized for what had started out as a fun thing…

Yeah, just a bit of youthful satire really… It can’t have been comfortable, for instance being John Lydon, he was publicly attacked twice within a very short space of time…

Yeah, I remember even my manager got attacked, we were walking in Fulham and he got attacked by sort of a football hooligan type, and if you dressed like a punk… that was why they started calling themselves scum punks, and then they became travelers, because they really dropped out of society in the end because they were made to feel they were bad…

So at the time you felt you needed to back off from the situation…

Yeah at the time I did, I started feeling I was scared to say who I was. That might have come about because I used to spend a bit of time at Gunter’s Grove, not that much, but occasionally I used to drop in there and see John and he always had the curtains drawn and was always a bit paranoid. So I think that maybe I picked up on that as well and got a bit paranoid about the whole thing. Not only that, ending up in the Maudsley after seeing a UFO and being put on Largactil I just kind of did back off ‘cause I felt, I was a bit paranoid at the time, I thought the establishment was against me and that’s why they’ve given me this chemical cosh!

You followed Spex with your solo album Translucence, which was a very different direction…

Yeah, a lot of it was just therapeutic, but I suppose that might be reflective of the bipolar where you do something like X-Ray Spex which is quite manic in the high period, without even knowing that you’ve got bipolar and then you do something quiet in the low period and it comes out like Translucence! I did feel I wanted to get away from punk for a while and anything that went with it. I remember being quite scared in the King’s Road when all these punks with Mohawks turned up, hanging out, all drunk and wasted on the Kings Road, I remember thinking ‘This is all my fault, I’ve done this!’ It did all turn a bit self-caricaturing, at that point, like it was becoming a uniform…

It did and you still see a few kids around like it now, really young ones…

So it was a more open field in the early punk days…

It was more like everybody being an individual and doing your own thing, and then it became, as you say, a uniform, not that there’s anything wrong it, I quite like some of that as a look, just on a fashion level with the boots and the hair and everything, I do quite like the look, but at the time it got a bit scary for me, the look, whereas now I’m used to it, when I see it now, it’s just a look… at the time it was like ‘Aaghhh!’ because not many people really dressed like that at the beginning of punk, that all came up later. So you were in and out with music after that, there was the Gods and Goddesses EP in the late 80s…

Oh yeah, I actually quite like those tracks, there’s only four of them, but that was when I lived in the Krishna temple, I wrote those, hence why it’s called Gods and Goddesses. That song Paramatma Is about the super soul within everyone. It’s spiritual pop really, but it doesn’t come across as spiritual, it comes across quite cool, the music’s not gospel or anything, it’s not sort of hallelujah, it’s more philosophical. It’s trying to write in a simplistic pop way and explain to people, a bit like when Bob Marley wrote Natural Mystics or when the Rastas say I and I, that’s what they’re talking about, the super-soul in the heart of every living entity. It was just very influenced by Krishna philosophy that EP. And I wanted to share that with other people, the Hare Krishna movement is a preaching movement really, it’s about enlightening other people. So naively I thought I could do that through music, but obviously it’s not that easy! It just turns out some of it is just good pop tracks!

Outside of music what keeps you busy these days?

Well there’s all the backup to the music! After the Roundhouse there was a lot of work because I produced the live album and the DVD, so I was doing that all this year really. And then there’s all the backup stuff, it sounds boring, but it’s just trying to get your online royalty statements, all that paperwork that goes with that, you’d be surprised how much paperwork there is, admin! But I’ve been writing and I wrote the new Spex album… but some of it I’m using for my solo album. At the moment I’m just experimenting with dub stuff, to see if we can pull it off as good as Rhythm and Sound – they’re like a dub duo, I think they’re from Germany, but they use Jamaican guys to front it, but it’s all about what effects you’ve got, and Sid’s got a lot of effects, we’re just experimenting up there, round at his house, at some stage I’ll try and record an X-Ray Spex album, that’s if somebody wants to put it out, I could do a few new songs if I do another live show, but I’m not planning a live show in the near future. But I’ve got a few new songs for X-Ray Spex anyway, but it’s just a whole album’s worth, whether somebody really wants to put it out, because if you’ve got no way of getting it to people, it’s a lot of time and energy making an album and then it doesn’t go out… but Future Noise have shown an interest, so did Sony, but they haven’t got back to us! To be honest, you don’t know whether it’s best just to work with an independent anyway, it’s not like we’re selling millions of copies. We’ll just have to wait and see and play it by ear. But for pleasure, what I do mainly is mess about with this dub stuff, it’s very chilled and very relaxing and I quite enjoy doing it. It’s day by day, I also run x-rayspex.com, so I have to answer those emails every day as well. It’s not too much, but there is something every day and there’s a myspace as well, I’ve just set up an official one. Just in case we do another gig in future we can get to everybody a bulletin.

You’ve sold out a 3,000 seater on the basis of your album of 1978, why do you think Germ Free Adolescents continues to resonate with people?

Something with the title of that album, Germ Free Adolescents, resonates with young people, it’s almost like a rite of passage, to have that album when you’re young, a teenager, because of the name of it. So it’s something to do with that, and I think the older people that came, I think it just takes them back to their youth, it’s that feel good thing, when you hear a piece of music, it resonates, you’ve got all these other associations with it. When you hear it again it takes you back to a period of your life, that probably might have been quite good and makes you feel good. I know people say the lyrics are really ahead of their time and this and that, and there is that to it, but I also believe there’s something, it also has a feel good factor, the feelings that you associated with when you first heard it, it transports you back.

Reminds me of when I was Smash Hits reader! But I played the album again last night and it’s not lost what made it exciting back then…

It was quite modern wasn’t it, the lyrics apply to today… Well the theme of consumerism is still topical…

I was writing about it before it was really big, so when you look at it now, you go ‘That’s really now’!

Poly Styrene’s final solo album ‘Generation Indigo’ is out now on Future Noise. Live At The Roundhouse London 2008 is out now through Year Zero

Made famous by their still-going-strong cover of ‘I Want Candy’, the ‘80s new wave band BOW WOW WOW has seen members come and go, and most recently influenced Sofia Coppola’s 2006 feature film ‘Marie Antoinette’. So let’s see how the band went from remaking pop culture to influencing it with some Bow Wow Wow facts…

– Bow Wow Wow was a New Wave band formed in 1980 and managed by former Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren.

– McLaren persuaded Ashman, Gorman and Barbarossa to leave Adam Ant of Adam & The Ants to form a new band.

– Manager McLaren came up with the name “Bow Wow Wow” as a tribute to Nipper the Dog, HMV Ltd.’s mascot. (HMV is a subsidiary label of Bow Wow Wow’s then label, EMI).

– Lead singer Annabella Lwin was discovered at the age of 14 while she was working at her local dry cleaning shop. She was singing along to a Stevie Wonder song on the radio.

– In 1982 Lwin’s mother alleged exploitation of a minor for immoral purposes and instigated a Scotland Yard investigation.

– As a result, the band was only allowed to leave England after McLaren promised not to promote Lwin as a "sex kitten."

– The band scored two UK Top 10 hits with “Go Wild in the Country” and “I Want Candy” (a cover of the 1965 Srangeloves hit) before disbanding in 1983.

– In 1983, Lwin quit the group for a solo career and the remaining band members renamed themselves the Chiefs of Relief.

– A second singer by the name of Lieutenant Lush performed with the band soon before it broke up. While Lush never recorded with Bow Wow Wow, he found stardom under the name Boy George.

– Bow Wow Wow has been accused of plagiarising melodies from Zulu jive and pop songs.

-Bow Wow Wow’s recording of "I Want Candy" continues to appear in film soundtracks and media and advertising events such as the 2005 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

– The band’s most notorious recording was "Sexy Eiffel Towers," an ode to masturbation.

– The group released three full-length albums before going their separate ways in 1983.

– In 1995, guitarist Ashman died at age 35 from complications caused by diabetes.

– Since his time in Bow Wow Wow, Barbarossa has worked on other musical projects such as Beats International, Live with Adam Ant in 1995, Republica, dance band Chicane, the London-based ‘Faith’ music collective and Amber Gate.

– Barbarossa also wrote a novel entitled “We Were Looking Up."

– Gorman continued to perform and has had success as a record producer and composer for films and advertising.

– Bow Wow Wow resurfaced in 1998 with Wild in the U.S.A., which featured remixes and concert performances from the reunion tour. Lwin and Gorman headed the comeback while Dave Calhoun (guitar) and Eshan Khadaroo (drums) replaced Ashman and Barbarossa.

– Bow Wow Wow’s song “A Thousand Tears” made it into the 1999 film Desperate but Not Serious starring Christine Taylor and Claudia Schiffer.

– Bow Wow Wow has many famous admirers including Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who included the line, "Swimming in the sound of Bow Wow Wow" in the song “Suck My Kiss.”

– On September 20, 2003 Bow Wow Wow, reformed again, performed as part of KROQ’s 25th Anniversary celebration. This time with Los Angeles guitarist Phil Gough and No Doubt drummer Adrian Young (who grew up idolizing the Bow Wow Wows).

– The new band then maintained a touring schedule through to 2006.

– In September 2005, Philadelphia, PA native Devin Beaman was brought in as the new drummer.

– In June 2006, Bow Wow Wow recorded a cover of The Smiths’ song "I Started Something" for a proposed Smiths tribute record. The full-length recording, the first new recording released under the name Bow Wow Wow in over 20 years, was made available on iTunes on January 1, 2007.

– Bow Wow Wow played their most recent show on November 2, 2006 at the Maritime Hotel’s Hiro Lounge in New York City to promote the inclusion of their music on the soundtrack of the Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette.

– According to Bow Wow Wow’s manager in 2006, "They actually based Marie Antoinette, from a styling point of view, on Annabella Lwin.”

– Bow Wow Wow has been on indefinite hiatus since 2006 but played London Scala in November 2010 for the Matthew Ashman tribute show.

Opening like a quick draw scene from a Sergio Leone Western, ‘Love Song 666’ slinks its way from the speakers with a satanic and sexy strut as ringmaster Mr Paul-Ronney Angel leads his flock of red ‘n’ black-clad miscreants through a barroom bop with the lyrics “So I fucked your sister/Tried it on with your mother/Kicked the shit out of your brother…”, intoning them with the gravitas of a sin-soaked preacher leering out of his pulpit at his damned congregation of drunks and punks. With a band culled from the darkest dive bars and titty joints this side of a James Ellroy novel (comprised of Nick ‘Nasty’ Marsh on guitar/vocals, Barney Hollington on violin, Dr Loyd Gomez De Ville on trumpet, upright bass player The Reverend Gavin Smith, percussionist extraordinaire Brother Jim Jones, The Late J-Roni-Moe on drums, Joe ‘Mongo’ Whitney on melodica, washboard and percussion and Jary on floor tom, cymbal and sticks), The Urban Voodoo Machine make music to drink, fight and fuck to, harnessing a sound that makes grown men strip and strippers lose their shit as master of the perverse verse Angel harnesses the smoky-shrouded cool of old school Tom Waits to the kind of swing that makes the burlesque dancers of the East End do their thing, dragging one and all into the band’s dark carnival. Having left an indelible mark on Vagueness, Edinburgh Festival and Latitude Festival, if they’re not out on tour, you can find The Urban Voodoo Machine propping up, playing on or underneath the bar at the Gypsy Hotel, an East London club night especially created to showcase their unique skills in getting a crowd good and sweaty. Personally invited by Spider Stacy to support The Pogues last year amd with their bourbon soaked second album ‘In Black ‘N’ Red’ out now, be sure to get their early to see just what all the fuss is about.

LIKE THIS? THEN CHECK OUT: The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy And The Lash Tom Waits – Nighthawks At The Diner The Clash – London Calling

PAUL-RONNEY ANGEL’S (front centre of pic above) 10 OUTLAW ANTHEMS

1. San Quentin – Johnny Cash (above) JC wrote this for the inmates of SQ, trying to put himself in their place – he did it well! "Your stone walls turn my blood a little cold"

2. The Guns of Brixton – The Clash "When they kick at your front door how you gonna come, with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?" Nuff said!

3. Mack the Knife – Louis Armstrong OK, there is hundreds of versions of this song, but I belive Satchmo’s is the best! "Someones sneaking round the corner, could that someone be Mack the Knife?"

4. Jesse James – The Pogues No list of outlaw anthems are complete without cowboys and the Pogues, this combines both! "Jesse James we understand, has killed many a man"

5. Devils Right Hand – Steve Earle Mr Earle was the country outlaw guy of the ‘80s, this song sums him up nicely! "Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand" 6. Stagger Lee – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds From the excellent Murder Ballads album, Ol’ Stag is the meanest gunslinging, gambling motherfucker around, "And he will crawl over fifty good pussies just to get to one fat boy’s asshole" – scary!

7. Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer – AC/DC (above) "You can stick your 9-5 living and your collar and your tie" – Bon Scott is the ultimate Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw! 8. Jumping Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones Anyone "born in a crossfire hurricane" got to be an outlaw! And then there is Keef of course!

9. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Ennio Morricone The ultimate western soundtrack – beautiful, scary and dramatic. If you want to hear a more rocking version, check out Los Plantronics. 10. Going Out West – Tom Waits "My parole officer is gonna be proud of me" – yeah right Tom!

~OK, you asked for 10, but I always go to 11, so here is one I wrote! 11. Orphans Lament – The Urban Voodoo Machine "Snake-Eye Jack that’s my name, too tough to die and too wild to tame"

PRESS STATEMENT Sham 69 has been disbanded by Dave Parsons. (original and founding member of Sham 69) After the news in 2006 that Jimmy Pursey and Dave parsons were to go their sepperate ways, with Dave installing a new line up of Sham 69 to fullfil his need to tour the Sham songs world wide, He has finally disbanded Sham 69. Upon returning from holiday in Cuba Dave found his name had been removed from the list of band members on the Sham 69 facebook site and that the other members,Timothy Vance, Ian Whitewood and Al Campbell have been rehearsing in a replacement Guitarist, without Dave’s permission or knowledge. Dave has said ‘The band will therefore presumably be continuing as a TRIBUTE BAND. If the band use a different name so as not to con the audience, he wishes them all the best with their new venture’. (He is also prepared to play out any previously booked gigs for the sake of fans who have bought tickets and to honour any contracts,) Dave has not ruled out the possibility of playing the odd gig as SHAM 69 with any of the old members of Sham 69 previous to this last line up. He would also like to thank all the people all over the world who came out to see the band and showed their support over the last four years. Dave Parsons www.daveparsons69.co.uk

Department S the post-punk legends who brought you the classics ‘Is Vic There?’, ‘Going Left-Right’ and ‘I Want’ are back and touring with their current single ‘Wonderful Day’ and soon to be released album ‘Mr Nutley’s Strange Delusionarium’

‘They’ve set storming music to a totally concise, relevant stream of consciousness’

8/10 review, Rock Sound, May 2011

THE KING BLUES ARE:

Johnny ‘Itch’ Fox – Vocals / Uke

Jamie Jazz – Guitar / Vocals

Dean Ashton – Guitar / Vocals

Jack Usher – Drums

Kat Marsh – Bass / Vocals

Josie Dobson – Keys / Vocals

The King Blues have announced that they’ll be releasing a new single “I WANT YOU” on 3rd July 2011 through Transmission Recordings/PIAS. The track is taken from the bands’ latest album “Punk & Poetry” which entered the charts in mid-April at number 31 (their highest chart position to date!)

To coincide with the release the band will be playing a number of festivals over the summer. The dates are as follows:

Sunday 22nd May – The Hub / Sound City / Liverpool

Sunday 29th May – Play Festival / Norwich

Friday 10th June- Sailor Jerry’s Show/ Night & Day / Manchester

Saturday 11th June – Download Festival/ Castle Donnington

Saturday 18th June – Gold Coast Ocean Festival / Croyde

Thursday 23rd June- Pavilion / Falmouth

Friday 24th June – Queens Head Stage & Strummerville Stages

Saturday 9th July – 1234 Festival / London

Sunday 17th July – Last Days of Freedom Festival / Hythe / Kent

Saturday 13th August – Vans Stage / Boardmasters Festival / Newquay

Sunday 14th August – Boomtown Festival / Buckingham

Friday 26th August- Chinnery’s / Southend

Saturday 27th August – Reading Festival / Lock Up stage

Sunday 28th August – Leeds Festival / Lock Up stage

Saturday 10th September – Ivyline Festival / Plymouth

The King Blues also recently announced that they’d be playing their biggest headlining show to date at The Roundhouse in their spiritual hometown of Camden, London on 3rd November 2011.

NEW SINGLE:

I WANT YOU – RELEASED ON 3rd JULY 2011

‘The searing soundtrack to revolution summer 2011‘

4K review, Kerrang, April 16th 2011

‘A convincing musical narrative for young life in the UK today’

Mojo, May 2011

‘They’ve set storming music to a totally concise, relevant stream of consciousness’

8/10 review, Rock Sound, May 2011

THE KING BLUES ARE:

Johnny ‘Itch’ Fox – Vocals / Uke

Jamie Jazz – Guitar / Vocals

Dean Ashton – Guitar / Vocals

Jack Usher – Drums

Kat Marsh – Bass / Vocals

Josie Dobson – Keys / Vocals

The King Blues have announced that they’ll be releasing a new single “I WANT YOU” on 3rd July 2011 through Transmission Recordings/PIAS. The track is taken from the bands’ latest album “Punk & Poetry” which entered the charts in mid-April at number 31 (their highest chart position to date!)

To coincide with the release the band will be playing a number of festivals over the summer. The dates are as follows:

Sunday 22nd May – The Hub / Sound City / Liverpool

Sunday 29th May – Play Festival / Norwich

Friday 10th June- Sailor Jerry’s Show/ Night & Day / Manchester

Saturday 11th June – Download Festival/ Castle Donnington

Saturday 18th June – Gold Coast Ocean Festival / Croyde

Thursday 23rd June- Pavilion / Falmouth

Friday 24th June – Queens Head Stage & Strummerville Stages

Saturday 9th July – 1234 Festival / London

Sunday 17th July – Last Days of Freedom Festival / Hythe / Kent

Saturday 13th August – Vans Stage / Boardmasters Festival / Newquay

Sunday 14th August – Boomtown Festival / Buckingham

Friday 26th August- Chinnery’s / Southend

Saturday 27th August – Reading Festival / Lock Up stage

Sunday 28th August – Leeds Festival / Lock Up stage

Saturday 10th September – Ivyline Festival / Plymouth

The King Blues also recently announced that they’d be playing their biggest headlining show to date at The Roundhouse in their spiritual hometown of Camden, London on 3rd November 2011.

Lou Reed has added another date to the UK leg of his upcoming European tour in July. Reed and his band will play the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Friday July 1st. Tickets, priced £35, can be ordered from 0870 320 7000,www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.wolvescivic.co.uk.

Reed will play two further concerts in the UK including The Hop Farm Music Festival (Saturday July 2nd) and London HMV Hammersmith Apollo (Monday July 4th). In addition to the UK dates, Reed will perform several concerts in France, including Le Grand Rex (Tuesday July 5th), and an extensive tour of Italy that includes dates in Milan, Rome and Taormina, Sicily. The European tour follows the announcement of a Reed¹s new ŒLollapalooza Live¹ DVD that will be released in July.

RADIO DEAD ONES ***RAUCUS PUNK ROCKERS¹ SOPHOMORE AAA¹ ALBUM RELEASED APRIL 18TH ON SPV / 10 DATE MAY UK BIG CHEESE SPONSORED HEADLINE TOUR*** Visceral German punk rockers Radio Dead Ones have signed to SPV to release their raucous, riotous, totally infectious second album, ŒAAA¹ on April 18th, and have confirmed a headline UK tour in May. Dates are:- May 20th – London – The Retro Bar May 21st – Digbeth – Wagon + Horses May 22nd – Bristol – The Lanes May 23rd – Cardiff – Buffalo Bar May 24th – Cardiff – Spillers (instore acoustic gig) May 25th – Derby ­ The Old Bell May 26th – Leeds – Carpe Diem (with Acid Drop) May 27th – Morecambe – Nice + Sleazy Festival May 28th – Sunderland ­ Independent May 29th ­ Manchester – Strummercamp May 30th ­ Margate ­ Westcoast Bar All four members of Radio Dead Ones were born back in the early eighties behind the iron curtain in East Germany, when and where nobody could imagine these young trouble makers would ever have the chance to form a rabble rousing punk rock band. As soon as they turned 18, brothers Beverly (vocals) and Rik (guitar and b/vocals), and their friends Ändru (bass) and TV Mörk (drums) moved to the dirty side of Berlin in 2002 to start their punk rock mission.

THE BONGOLIAN on CRAIG CHARLES SHOW [http://www.blowup.co.uk/records/] LAST SATURDAY & IN SESSION 11TH JUNE THE BONGOLIAN has been invited in for a session on the excellent CRAIG CHARLES FUNK & SOUL [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0072ky7] on BBC 6Music on Saturday 11th June. He’ll be playing tracks from his fourth album Bongos For Beatniks out this May. If you missed the show on Saturday here’s what the man himself said said: “I love this new album and I’m going to play it to death, its absolutely brilliant… …Its official. The bongolian. My new favourite band” Listen again here [http://blowup.co/mmm5wp] ’til tomorrow (21m 41s in) [http://blowup.co/mmm5wp] ‘BONGOS FOR BEATNIKS’ The 4th Bongolian album… [http://www.bongolian.com] on CD & LP from BLOW UP: CD [http://www.mamstore.co.uk/bin/pxisapi1.exe/large?item=810245] ? LP [http://www.mamstore.co.uk/bin/pxisapi1.exe/large?item=811263] & all good shops including: Cargo Collective store around the UK [http://www.cargorecords.co.uk/collective] / JBs / Dusty Groove [http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=gdtpvf782m&ref=index.php] (USA) / Norman [http://www.normanrecords.com/poogle/index.php?q=bongos+for+beatniks] / Phonica [http://www.phonicarecords.com/product/view/63591] / Piccadilly [http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/products/TheBongolian-BongosForBeatniks-BlowUp-75793.html] / Rough Trade [http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=338656] / Sister Ray [http://www.sisterray.co.uk/catalogue/products/terms/bongos+for+beatniks] / Sounds Of The Universe [http://www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=23537] / amazon.co.uk [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_ss_c_1_19%26field-keywords%3Dbongos%2520for%2520beatniks%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Dpopular%26sprefix%3Dbongos%2520for%2520beatniks%23&tag=blowuprecords-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450] hmv and more… download: [http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/bongos-for-beatniks/id430302336] BONGOLIAN.COM [http://www.bongolian.com/] ? [http://www.facebook.com/TheBongolian] [http://www.myspace.com/thebongolian] [http://open.spotify.com/artist/6ffK1y5khUaBREFSCbPaH7] [http://www.last.fm/music/The+Bongolian] [http://www.blowupclub.com/eventinfo.aspx?id=110514r] BLOW UP dates this June We are pleased to announce that Blow Up will be hitting the West Coast this June… Sat. 5th June [http://www.blowupclub.com/eventinfo.aspx?id=110604t] Fri. 10th June [http://www.blowupclub.com/eventinfo.aspx?id=110610t] Sat. 18th June [http://www.blowupclub.com/eventinfo.aspx?id=110514r] details tba For all US news join our new US facebook page: facebook.com/blowupusa [http://www.facebook.com/blowupusa] BLOWUPCLUB.COM [http://www.blowupclub.com/] ? [http://www.facebook.com/blowup] [http://www.myspace.com/blowupclub] [http://twitter.com/blowup] [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21140595328] [http://www.blowup.co.uk/blowupnews.aspx] [http://www.blowupclub.com] [http://www.blowupclub.com/map.aspx?locid=1] [http://www.blowupclub.com] Resident Blow Up DJs Paul Tunkin & Ian Jackson and the occasional live guest spin their trademark mix of Orgasmic Pop / 60s Mod & Soul / New Wave. Expect to hear a selection of British Pop from Beatles to Bowie to Blur alongside 60s Soul, Garage, Ska, Beat, Latin Soul, Swinging Soundtracks, 60s Funk, YeYe and Psychedelic Pop Electronique. Confirmed live for 13th August: Thee Faction who will be joined by special guest organist by Ivan Chandler (keyboardist to Dusty Springfield, Lulu and Cat Stevens). More info & tickets [http://www.blowupclub.com/eventinfo.aspx?id=110813r] ? Map [http://www.blowupclub.com/map.aspx?id=110813r] UNSUBSCRIBE: If you have received this message in error or would like to unsubscribe please follow the instructions below. You have received this email because you signed up for updates at a Blow Up event, The Metro Club, filled in a reply card in a Blow Up release or via www.blowup.co.uk, www.blowupclub.com, www.blowupmetro.com, facebook or myspace.

GYPSY HOTEL Saturday 21 May 2011 ³Bourbon Soaked Snake Charmin¹ Rock¹N¹Roll Cabaret² (Please note that venue has moved from the Woodstore, Caledonian Rd to Underbelly, Hoxton) STARRING: BIKINI BEACH BAND ­ London’s Kings Of Surf Noir! * * The ultimate party band! Expect modern songs turned into classic surf instrumentals and one hell of a show! VIVID ANGEL ­ Freak Show Diva! ** Flesh hooks, nails in noses and many other surprises from this sexy dame! SQUIRELL SKIN SLIPPERS – Blues Punk Duo! ** A full on garage blues exotica explosion! TOM BAKER – Squeezebox Supreme! ** Mr Baker, head honcho of such fine bands as The Bohemianauts and Fantasmagoria steps onto the Gypsy Hotel stage solo this time armed with his accordion and a fine selection of drinking songs! FRIDAY BLUES – Gypsy Violin Vixen! ** Burlesque Bump¹n¹Grind meets real live fiddle action!! No, not that kinda fiddle!! MiICHELLE BRENNAN – Smoky Sultry Songstress! **The last time this lovely Irish gal checked into the Hotel she had lost her piano player in a bizarre gardening accident and had to sing accapella ­ this time she comes armoured with a guitarist who is not a keen gardener! THE ACTION MEN – Male Dance Troupe! ** Need we say more to describe this act? dj SCRATCHY – Resident Wax-Spinner! **Scratchy has been our resident DJ, compere and musical guidance since the beginning of the club. He has toured the world as a warm up DJ for The Clash, Gogol Bordello, Dr Feelgood, The Urban Voodoo Machine and The Pogues amongst others. Do not ask him to play Madonna! Do check out his weekly radio show though! http://scratchysounds.co.uk/ £6.66 before 9.30pm *(with correct change only) £9.99 after Advance tickets are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/119079 Doors 7pm Show starts 8pm sharp Close 1am (but fear not, we¹ll walk around the corner to Roadtrip where we¹ll continue the drinkin¹ and dancin¹ till 5am!!) VENUE! HAS MOVED!! Just as we were settling in at the Woodstore after having been there for 6 months, we got the call that they had to close downŠ.luckily the lovely people at Underbelly had their dates moved around so we could have our show go on as planned! It is a very cool suave sleazy 250 capacity venue by the way with good sound/sight and a decently priced bar! UNDERBELLY 11 Hoxton Square N1 6NU www.underbellyhoxton.com THEN AFTER SHOW TILL 5AM AT ROAD TRIP BAR (3 minutes walk from Underbelly) 243 Old Street EC1V 9EY www.roadtripbar.com ****************** Gypsy Hotel Vol 1 is compiled by our resident wax-spinner dj Scratchy and host Paul-Ronney Angel, Gypsy Hotel Vol 1 features 16 of the finest bands that have played the club including The Urban Voodoo Machine, the Jim Jones Revue, Mama Rosin, Little Victor, Nigel Burch, Trans-Siberian March Band and many more! Released through Gypsy Hotel Records/RSK Entertainment available on CD with a tasty 24 page booklet and Download. Full track listing and order info here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bourbon-Soaked-Charmin-RocknRoll-Cabaret/dp/B0049OQI 72/ref=pd_sxp_f_r “IF YOU HAVE 12 HOURS TO LIVE SPEND IT AT GYPSY HOTEL!” Time Out

On Saturday 18 June legendary US band The Sonics come to London to perform at Royal Festival Hall. The event will be an unmissable opportunity to see the garage rock legends who influenced bands such as The Stooges, The MC5 and Nirvana, alongside Wire, one of the defining bands of the post-punk era. Tickets/more info http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/gigs-contemporary/tickets/ the-sonics-wire-58715

Strummercamp Festival 2011 27/28/29 May | Manchester Rugby Club A not-for-profit festival celebrating the life, music Influence of Joe Strummer and the Clash ³the friendliest festival on the circuit² efestivals May bank holiday see Strummercamp festival return for the sixth year to Manchester Rugby club for another weekend of great music to celebrate the music and influence of Joe Strummer. Headliners for this years festival include the UK Subs, Geno Washington the Ram Jam Band, and the Selecter. This completely volunteer run independent festival continue to grow, this year featuring over 55 bands, on 4 stages and across 3 days. · Not-for-profit festival run by completely by volunteers · Mainstage featuring well know established bands · Second stage run by Manchester independent record label, bring the best of the underground music scene, with Manchester¹s Sonic Boom Six headlining, support by Big Cheese Magazine · Acoustic stage run by Leeds promoters Œthe hempen Jig¹ providing some of the best UK acoustic acts · After show bands at the Rugby Club stage · Amazing friendly family atmosphere · Great selection of food, including vegetarian café · Beer sold at pub prices include a great selection of real ale · Annual Strummercamp 5-a-side competetion · Free camping and parking with weekend ticket Tickets are available on the festival website, from TNSrecords, in Rockers England (Manchester) and from ticketline. For more information please contact Phil on 07903304744 www.strummercamp.co.uk | @Strummercamp11 | enquiries@strummercamp.co. uk

Strummercamp Festival 2011 27/28/29 May | Manchester Rugby Club A not-for-profit festival celebrating the life, music Influence of Joe Strummer and the Clash ³the friendliest festival on the circuit² efestivals May bank holiday see Strummercamp festival return for the sixth year to Manchester Rugby club for another weekend of great music to celebrate the music and influence of Joe Strummer. Headliners for this years festival include the UK Subs, Geno Washington the Ram Jam Band, and the Selecter. This completely volunteer run independent festival continue to grow, this year featuring over 55 bands, on 4 stages and across 3 days. · Not-for-profit festival run by completely by volunteers · Mainstage featuring well know established bands · Second stage run by Manchester independent record label, bring the best of the underground music scene, with Manchester¹s Sonic Boom Six headlining, support by Big Cheese Magazine · Acoustic stage run by Leeds promoters Œthe hempen Jig¹ providing some of the best UK acoustic acts · After show bands at the Rugby Club stage · Amazing friendly family atmosphere · Great selection of food, including vegetarian café · Beer sold at pub prices include a great selection of real ale · Annual Strummercamp 5-a-side competetion · Free camping and parking with weekend ticket Tickets are available on the festival website, from TNSrecords, in Rockers England (Manchester) and from ticketline. For more information please contact Phil on 07903304744 www.strummercamp.co.uk | @Strummercamp11 | enquiries@strummercamp.co. uk

THE URBAN VOODOO MACHINE’S "IN BLACK’N’RED" ALBUM LAUNCH – LIVE IN LONDON! With very Special guests Last Man Standing, Nigel Burch & dj Scratchy. **************************

** Tickets here:http://www.wegottickets.com/event/116554 The Urban Voodoo Machine celebrate the release of their brand new album “In Black ‘N’ Red" with a headline show at Camden’s Dingwalls on Tuesday 17th May. This will be part of their biggest, most comprehensive UK tour to date, as they look to conquer the country with their unique brand of sleaze-tinged, dark-edged, rockabilly-flavoured, gypsy blues and folk-punk – or Bourbon Soaked Gypsy Blues Bop’n’Stroll as the group like to call it!

This key night of the tour, at one of London’s most famous venues, the 500-Capacity Dingwalls, has been arranged for May 17th – Norwegian Independence Day. With singer Paul-Ronney Angel from Norway, and London’s Norwegian community in tow, this promises to be one hell of a party!

“Using horns, violin, accordion, banjo and multiple percussionists, the band veers into mariachi-influenced blues, whiskey-soaked country rags and punkabilly-style rave-ups.” (The Washington Post)

2011 looks to be the best year yet for the black-suited, red-shirted, London-based collective who recently received a nomination for the ‘Best New Band’ award by Classic Rock magazine. Led by the darkly charismatic Paul-Ronney Angel, The Urban Voodoo Machine is a supremely talented collective of London-based musicians who have been bringing the spirit of the carnie to an ever-growing audience of dedicated fans these past few years.

Although officially a 9-piece, The Urban Voodoo Machine’s live shows can sometimes feature up to 12 people on stage. The group play a colourful array of instruments including guitars, drums, fiddle, trumpet, banjo, washboard, upright bass, gong, mandolin, accordion, harmonica, saxophone, tuba, sousaphone and even empty bottles and tie racks to build their own unique and infectious sound. It is this sound that has seen the group invited to play at festivals throughout the UK and abroad including Glastonbury, Download, Hard Rock Calling and Latitude and led to support slots with The Pogues, The New York Dolls, Goran Bregović and Paul McCartney.

Revered by London’s underground cabaret scene, The Urban Voodoo Machine started up the legendary, alternative, monthly club night, Gypsy Hotel in October 2006: the massively popular night is still going strong and a couple of times a year the group headlines and sells out this exciting and eclectic rock ‘n’ roll cabaret.

FREE AFTERSHOW AT ZENSAI BAR IN CAMDEN TILL 3AM! (the band do not have a show the following day, so please join us for a drink or 11 after the show – this bar even sells a cocktail named after us the URBAN VODOO – a mix of Absinthe, Jack Danies, Lime and Champagne…..you best take Wednesday off work we reckon!)

And let’s not forget – IT’S THE LATE J-RONI-MOE’S BIRTHDAY!!!!! (Yes, even green zombie drummers have birthdays!!)

Read an interview with US new wavers the Cars in next Vive Le Rock out May 24th. and stream the new album now-

THE CARS' MOVE LIKE THIS OUT NOW EMBEDDABLE FULL ALBUM STREAM ON SOUNDCLOUD 11-DATE TOUR KICKS OFF TODAY The 24-year wait is over as today, May 10, The Cars release their brand new album, Move Like This, via Hear Music/Concord Music Group. Move Like This, produced by Garret "Jacknife" Lee (U2, REM, The Hives, Weezer) and The Cars, finds the beloved band - Ric Ocasek, Greg Hawkes, Elliot Easton and David Robinson - brimming with confidence and creative energy, in full charge of their considerable power and enduring influential artistry. In celebration of the release, the band is sharing an embeddable full album stream for fans to hear and share via the link below. Stream and Grab The Cars'Move Like This on SoundCloud (live for one more week): http://soundcloud.com/thecars/sets/move-like-this/